Resolution:The Z30_LINKING_NUMBER is defined as "NUMBER (9)" to Oracle. This means that it is a maximum of 9 bytes and is intended to contain only numbers..When I did this SQL:.update z30 set z30_linking_number = '111.222' where z30_rec_key = ....The resulting z30_linking_number looked like this:.000000111.that is, the ".222" was omitted.